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Pleasant Trip - except for the non-functional toilet

Sail Date:
June 2011

Destination:
Canada & New England

Embarkation:
New York (Manhattan)

My husband and I sailed on the Carnival Glory, out of NYC on June 18th, with two stops in Canada. We chose this trip so that we could take a trip with my brother, his wife, and two girls. We live in Vermont, and they live near Philadelphia, so this was a relatively inexpensive cruise that we didn't have to fly to.

I'll describe some non-toilet-related tidbits below, but first the toilet problem. The toilet repeatedly (4 or 5 times) stopped working. Pressing the flush button did nothing. We'd call the customer desk, tell them, and a repair person would show up and fix it. It would work for a few more flushes, we'd go out and do things, come back later in the day, and it wouldn't work. Sometimes, if it was late and we were only using it for "#1", we'd leave it and call in the morning.

On day 3 (after 3 nights), I went down to the front desk and explained the situation and asked if any compensation was possible - a different room, a partial refund, or an onboard credit. More
They said no.

The next day (day 4), when it once again stopped working, I went to the desk and was much more adamant. They moved us to a different room for the last night, and since it had a window, they acted like they were doing us some huge favor, some great upgrade. But we don't spend much time in the room, it was only for one night, and the hassle of packing up and moving pretty much wiped out the positive aspect of a better room. But at least the toilet worked. I continued to press for some sort of compensation. It wrecks a part of your vacation to wake up, not be able to flush, and then have a repair person in your room while you are trying to get dressed for a day onshore. Repeatedly.

They claimed they only had two repair calls in their system. I said it's not my fault that your phone operators and/or repair people do not do the necessary steps so that there is a record. I said ask the plumber - we go to know each other. He'll say how many times he was there. She also implied that it was our own fault. She was describing how exactly the toilet malfunctioned and said it was due to how it was being used. I asked, "Are you saying it is our fault" and she said no, since there is more than one room on that system. So... she is implying it is either our fault or our neighbors' fault. There were times it wouldn't work when all we did was pee - i.e. nothing to clog the toilet. We never flushed anything we weren't supposed to.

My husband was the one talking to her when he finally decided to give up. I would have pushed harder, and I now will. I want at least a partial refund since part of what I paid for (a functional toilet) was not provided.

In non-toilet news:

The waterslide was fun, though the line was long at times. We used it before the boat even left port, because it was warmer in NYC than Canada, and the line wasn't long then because most people were just settling in.

One night, in chilly Canada, my husband and I used the hot tub in the adults-only "Serenity" area after dark, right before closing time. That was lovely.

Mini-golf was fine, but very cold out at sea, since it is exposed with no walls to stop the wind. Also, when I went to the desk near the pool to ask about clubs, balls, etc., they said it was open after 5pm. I thought that odd, and went to take a look. People were playing. The sign said open UNTIL 5pm. I think it was a language problem (person didn't speak great English).

Buffet meals were quite good. We discovered the breakfast line was shorter at the buffet closest to the main pool area - what is normally a grill station. At first glance, it looks like there are fewer kinds of breakfast food there, but all it is missing is cut up fruit and cold cuts. You could get whole fruit at a different place with no line, so that was fine by me.

Loved the Burrito station, though I would have liked longer hours (it wasn't always open for lunch). The Mongolian Wok looked good but always had crazy long lines so we never tried it. We tried going to the main restaurant for breakfast one morning but it also had a crazy long line so we didn't stay.

The t.v. shows had serious problems - it kept cutting out. The desk said they had trouble with the satellite when it is windy. I thought, when is it not windy on a cruise ship? So it was annoying to start watching Hawaii 5-O and then have to give up on it.

The main dinner meals were fairly good, but some nights it took a very long time to get served. We had a 6pm seating, were there on time, and on the last night we weren't served our main dish until 7:15 pm. Some nights it was quick. We could not figure out why some days were so different. Also, some people who sat at the same time as us would be on dessert and we hadn't been served our main dish yet. Less